NBA Waiver Wire: Winding Down the Fantasy Season

The fantasy basketball season should be winding down, as the tankathon continues to grow in the NBA with the contenders starting to truly separate themselves from the pretenders. There’s still plenty of news to go around, however, with a pair of teammates being some of the most added players of the week.

Denzel Valentine and Cameron Payne

Like so many other teams at this point in the season, the Bulls rotation isn’t ideal for fantasy owners with players sitting out entirely or playing limited minutes. One of the players who has consistently seen minutes, however, is Denzel Valentine. He has gotten a floor of around 20 minutes over the Bulls past five games and has filled the stat-line in that span. He’s exploded with big point totals of 34 and 20 and also posted a five steal game. He’s also been steady in providing boards, averaging 4.4 per game, as well as assists at 3.6 per game. Finally, despite shooting just 41.6% from the field on the season, he has shot 50% over this five game span. That could be a sign that Valentine is performing near his ceiling, but he contributes enough across multiple categories to remain relevant even if his scoring dips. By now, Valentine is fairly highly owned, but it is worth ensuring he isn’t available in your league.

Cameron Payne has also seen his minutes rise with the likes of Zach LaVIne and Kris Dunn remaining sidelined. He’s not as intriguing as Valentine, but does offer solid contributions in terms of scoring and assists. He’s scored in double-digits in three of his past five games and has dished out at least five assists in each of those games. Payne has struggled with his shot of late, but has shot a respectable 44% over 12 games in March so he could be in line to produce a bit more if the playing time remains consistent.

Greg Monroe and Marcus Morris

The extended absence of Kyrie Irving obviously benefits the likes of Jayson Tatum and Terry Rozier, but Daniel Theis suffering a season-ending injury has gone a bit more under the radar. The primary beneficiary of that news has been Marcus Morris to this point (more on that coming up), but Greg Monroe has worked his way into the Celtics rotation, getting around 20 minutes a night. He’s posted some vintage lines reminding fantasy owners of his production when he was a key member of the Bucks and consistently posting double-doubles. A bit uncharacteristically, he has averaged a block and 1.4 steals per game over his past five, boosting defensive stats for fantasy owners. Even if that doesn’t continue, his strong shooting, boards, and points production have all been consistent throughout his career when he gets playing time and those minutes appear to be consistent for the time being.

Marcus Morris is among the lower of my priorities on the waiver wire, but his hot performances of late deserve at least some attention. Despite the absence of several key members of the rotation, Morris’ usage rate has barely risen over the past games, going up just 1.2% over his season long mark. Instead, he has relied on hot shooting to post some gaudy scoring totals , combining for 51 points on 17-for-26 shooting from the field over his past two games. That won’t keep up, and Morris provides little outside of scoring in terms of fantasy production. That isn’t to say he isn’t worth streaming while he remains hot, just understand that it likely won’t last long.